Ballymun Flats

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ballymun Flats tower block complex in Ballymun, Dublin, Ireland, is scheduled for demolition. The regeneration of the area will transform not only Dublin's Northside skyline, but also the whole of Dublin from the airport to the city centre.

The Ballymun Flats were built in the 1960s to accommodate the rising population, and particularly to accommodate former residents of inner-city areas which were being cleared in the process of 1960s 'urban slum clearances'. Whilst suffereing from a lack of sufficient public amenities, several schools served the area (Holy Spirit N.S. and Ballymun Comprehensive), as well as an Eastern Health Board medical centre and a purpose built shopping centre. The area suffered from many social problems such as drugs with rampant crime as well as many other problems. The causes of these social problems, and the subsequent discrimination faced by many people with Ballymun addresses when seeking employment outside the suburb, have been disputed, but Ballymun generally paralleled the experience of many working-class people in the 1960 and 1970s when placed in high-rise locations. Despite the negative perceptions of many non-residents of Ballymun, there existed, and exists today, a strong sense of pride and community in the area, as evidenced by the fact that many former residents of the flats have accepted new social housing in the district. During the 1990s many improvements were made but it was too little too late.

The seven landmark towers were named after the leaders of the Easter 1916 rising as follows:

Pearse (demolished July 2004)
MacDonagh (demolished June 2005)
Clarke
Connolly
Ceannt (demolished late 2005)
Plunkett
MacDermott (demolished March 2005)

The three remaining towers are clearly visible from the adjacent Dublin airport.

The red aircraft warning lights on these structures were not connected to any form of back-up power for many years, leaving the towers completely dark in a power outage.

The line "I see seven towers, but I only see one way out" from U2's 1987 song "Running To Stand Still" (on The Joshua Tree album) refers to these towers.^[1]